First day, first show: 250 devotees visit Belur Math in West Bengal

HOWRAH: More than 250 people visited Belur Math, the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, on Monday. The shrine was open for two hours in the morning (9am-11am) and two hours in the evening (4pm-6pm), with a slew of sanitization and social distancing norms in place.
At the gate, there were foot-pedal operated hand sanitizers. A route was charted for visitors past the four shrines that have allowed darshan for the moment and back to the gate, with floor markings six feet from each other. The sprawling campus can hold 500 people maintaining six-foot distance from each other.
However, only 10 people were allowed inside the shrine at a time. At each critical point, monks were on duty to ensure rules were followed.
At the end of the day, general secretary of Belur Math Swami Suvirananda expressed happiness over the way devotees adapted to the new order, maintaining discipline throughout. He described the atmosphere of Belur Math as “spiritually charged and reverberating with the reverence that devotees brought in with their presence” after a gap of over two and a half months.
Devotees were allowed to visit shrines dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ma, Swami Brahmananda and Swami Vivekananda. The residence of Swami Vivekananda has been kept out of bounds for the visitors for the moment. There was a bifurcation on the return route, with one channel moving towards the jetty and the other moving towards the gate that leads on to G T Road.
Devotees had to pay their respects, but no one was allowed to sit for pranaam or meditate. Prasad distribution has been put on hold for the time being, besides the book distribution and museum visits. A shamiana has been constructed outside the gate where people can take shelter in case of rain.
“Gradually, as things improve, we will probably think of opening up the book store, the items that our self-help rural groups make and sell, and the museum,” Swami Suvirananda said, adding that the guest house is unlikely to reopen before November.
The two senior monks of Belur Math who had contracted Covid-19 and are hospitalized were doing well, sources said.